Port Charlotte Beach Park to reopen by the end of the week

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The Port Charlotte Beach Park will partially reopen by the end of the week, according to Charlotte County officials.

The park has been closed since the fall hurricanes, and has been fenced off while repairs are made and other projects in the park are completed. While the park has been closed, faithful patrons like Frank Kudrna have lobbied for the county to reopen parts of the park that took minimal damage in the hurricanes.

“We can walk and bike to this park, we come down to see the sunset at night, we have community meetings in the pavilion here,” said Kudrna. “Our neighborhood centers around this park so it's really important to us.”

Kudrna heads a committee of neighbors that want the park partially reopened, collecting over 700 signatures on a petition to push back the fence keeping people out.

At Tuesday’s Charlotte County Board of Commissioners meeting, Community Services Director Tommy Scott said a state mission that planned to use the park as a staging area for derelict boats was no longer going to happen.

“They notified us officially on January 3 that they weren’t going to move forward with utilizing that facility and they were going to move forward with other arrangements,” Scott told Fox 4.

During workshop in December, Scott presented a plan and timeline to reopen the park by February. He said without the state mission taking place it was safe to move the fence back and let the public use some areas of the park.

“We told them what the timeline was going to be, and we delivered on that in advance of what we told them the timeline was,” said Scott. “So, we are excited that we are going to be able to open a portion of the park, again it's not the entire facility but the portions that are safe and usable, they’ll be open soon.”

Scott said a few minor projects in the park will be completed in the coming days before the fence is pushed back, but then Kudrna and anyone else wanting to use the park can return.

“A lot of people are going to be here and we're looking forward to it,” said Kudrna.